Wednesday, October 31, 2012

I have so many exciting projects on my pinboards that I should probably be working on right now. But with being 38 weeks pregnant I decided to tackle a nice and simple (and very sweet) project that I've wanted to do for just about ever.

A pretty little birdie jar.

I originally made it as a gift for Georgia's first birthday, but it accidentally got broken. Re-making it gave me the perfect opportunity to also use it as my pinterest challenge project :).

The inspiration came from this gorgeous Aussie blog and as you can see I really didn't vary mine much from the original at all. The main thing I did differently was use red and pink so that it would look good in Georgia's very gorgeous red and pink nursery.

Supplies:

mason jar (I used a large moccona coffee jar)

fake moss

stick / branch

fabric scraps

needle and thread

ribbon

birdies (I found mine at spotlight)

hot glue

tacky glue (optional)

iron on interfacing

small plate or circle (for tracing)

scissors

rubber band

I started out by brushing a layer of tacky glue into the bottom of my jar, I then poured in a heap of the moss and pressed it down into the glue. I wasn't completely happy with the coverage though so I ended up pouring in a heap more moss and just leaving it loose in the bottom of the jar. In hindsight you could probably leave out the glue at the start and just go ahead and leave all of the moss loose in the bottom of the jar...

For my branch I used this fake Christmas branch that I got on sale at spotlight. I just chopped off the bit that I needed. It had wire through the centre of it which made it really hard to cut, so I pulled the wire out with pliers and then had another go at chopping it. Much easier without the wire!

Next up I used the interfacing to fuse my fabric scraps back to back, then cut out some teeny little triangles. I hand stitched them into a little bunting garland and then tied it onto the branch.

Using hot glue I stuck the branch into the inside of the jar. It took me a fair few goes to get it right. After each failed attempt I would scrape the dried hot glue off the inside of the glass before giving it another go. I got there eventually!

To get the birds perched nicely on the branch I just squeezed some hot glue onto the bottom of each and placed them onto the branch.

To finish the jar off I traced a circle onto the red fabric, cut it out and then secured it to the lid of the jar with a rubber band. I tied a pretty ribbon around the lid to hide the rubber band and voila - all done!

I'm seriously in love with this little jar. If I had little girls of my own I would definitely be making more of these for their rooms. They're perfectly equal parts pretty, girly and whimsical :)

I've linked this up with Katie, Sherry, Sarah and Carmel for the Fall Pinterest Challenge. Make sure you go and check out what these very talented girls have made for the challenge. There are already hundreds of projects linked up... so much pinspiration!!

If you'd like to see any of the projects I've made for previous pinterest challenge projects you can see them here:

Friday, October 12, 2012

I'm 35 weeks and 4 days today and I've changed my mind about how I'm going to have this baby. I was booked in to have a c-section on the 9th of November, but I've decided it's not for me.

I had an elective caesar with Max at my Ob's recommendation. At 36 weeks he decided that Max was going to be quite big and because my pelvis is slightly tilted at a funny angle there was a 'good chance' his shoulders would get stuck and I would end up having an emergency c-section anyway. I have no regrets at all about Max's birth, it was actually exactly what I wanted at the time. Well planned, organised and structured. The only thing that didn't go to plan was Max needing to go off to the nicu for 8 hours because he wasn't breathing well - you can read Max's birth story here.

Sean, Max and Me - December 2009

Max ended up being 8 pounds (at 38 weeks) and I really don't think he was as big as anyone expected. This time round the baby is measuring quite big again, and although I've only put on 3 kilos (I had plenty of spare ones to start with), my belly is enormous. But I was like that with Max too and like I said he really wasn't very big.

At my 20 week appointment the obstetrician I saw asked if I wanted to have a caesar or a vbac and I said that I hadn't decided yet. He then kept reading my file and after seeing I had MS said 'you're having a caesar'. At the time I just excepted it as I had always thought that's what would happen anyway.

I've had a fairly textbook pregnancy and except for a week back in July my MS symptoms have been mostly under control. I'm fatigued a lot of the time, but tell me about a 35 week pregnant mum of a toddler who isn't! Two nights ago I woke up in the middle of the night and just knew that I didn't want another c-section. I almost woke Sean up to tell him, but decided to wait until the morning. We had a good chat about it and he's happy with my choice.

I saw my Dr yesterday and she is backing me up too. So next Tuesday I'm going up to the hospital to meet with an Ob and have my plan changed. I'm fully aware that I could end up having a c-section anyway, but I really want to give it a shot. This is probably going to be my last baby and I want to know what it feels like to go into labour, I want to feel the contractions and I want to give birth to my baby. I'll probably regret all of that as soon as it starts, but that's how I feel right at this moment.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

One thing I never really thought about when I imagined having a toddler was still needing to carry around a metric tonne of stuff. To be fair I carry a lot less now than when Max was a baby, but with number two on the way and Max still being a toddler I see a time in my very near future where I'm going to need a bigger bag (and car!).

I have things fairly streamlined at the moment. I keep all Max's essentials in a make-up bag (a 'freebie' from back when the budget allowed those gift-time purchases at the make-up counters), and that gets stashed in my handbag every time we go out.

As you can see Max is now in big boy undies! After months of tearing my hair out thinking that he would never-ever-ever stop wanting a nappy, one day he was just ready. Since that day a couple of months ago he has been happily wearing undies and has only had one or two accidents (with none in public thankfully!).

It was a welcome change, but it has brought a whole new set of challenges. I normally avoid public bathrooms like the plague. I'm not a complete germophobe, but I would much (much!) prefer to wait until I get home rather than using the shopping centre or petrol station facilities. That's no longer an option. Turns out when a toddler needs to go, he needs to go!

The other day I got an email from Dettol asking if they could send me some of their new hand sanitizer to try out & I jumped at the chance. If I'm going to have to use the public bathrooms I definitely want something to kill the germs afterwards :)

I've been using it for the last week (for myself only obviously, it's not meant for use on babies or kids) and I can honestly say I love it. It kills 99.99% of germs (win!), it works instantly and you don't need soap or water, which I love because I think half the time the taps and soap dispensers have more germs on them that anywhere else, and I love that I can use it again once I've finished touching the door to get out of the bathroom. It comes in two sizes, the 50ml bottle that you can see above in my nappy bag and a bigger 200ml pump pack (I have one of those in each of my bathrooms).

At first I just thought of it as something I'd use out and about, but I've started using it at home as well (because we all know mums have to keep wiping bums long after the nappies are gone!). I don't want to completely harp on about it, but the other thing I love about it is that they've added a new variant, cucumber and melon, which moisturizes as well as killing 99.99% of germs (double win!).

Dettol are running a competition over on good old twitter, where they're giving away $200 from babyshopdirect for the top three twitter photos and 40 sample packs will also be given away to selected photos. All you have to do is tweet a photo showing the contents of your nappy bag and include the hashtag #dettolnappybag for your chance to win :)

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Celebrating my fourth wedding anniversary the other week has got me thinking about weddings more than ever. I absolutely love everything about them and if I was a more organised person I would definitely look into being a wedding/event planner. Who knows, maybe I will evolve into a more organised person and start a career as a planner one day. In the meantime I'll make do with pinning gorgeous images and dreaming about planning weddings.

Although my best friend's wedding is over I still keep adding images to the pinboard (aptly named 'my best friend's wedding' - a name that I blatantly stole off the lovely Laura).

This week I'm dreaming about an idyllic country wedding and I thought I would share some of my favourite images. (All images can be found here, or you can click the link under each image to go directly to the source.)

On the long weekend Sean, Max and I headed up to Hervey Bay to catch up with friends and family and celebrate the birthday and baptism of one very sweet little girl.

I followed up with a huge day back at home yesterday and I'm absolutely shattered today. I think I've been hit with a triple punch of ms symptoms, a little cold and general pregnancy tiredness. Totally worth it though!

Here's some snaps from the weekend (all taken by my very talented friend Nat).

This month I'm joining in with Julia over at Kuku Couture Invitations for Blogtober. I don't think I'll manage a post a day (seeing as I already missed the first two days of October!), but I am going to try to publish four posts a week this month. If you want to join in too visit this post and then use the hashtag #blogtober whenever you share your posts on facebook, twitter or instagram.